Crashing Randomly what could it be?

It crashes randomly. Showing a black screen for 10 seconds and then turning off. When i turn it back on it mostly crashes again after 30 seconds.

I was not able to reproduce this problem manually. I tried to bring the Macbook to its maximum with 4k video, games, 4x yes-command, ssd-stress-test, etc etc ... but still it wont crash. And sometimes its working for 6 hours with no problem. But then another day suddenly it crashes when i just have Mail and Firefox opened! Also it doesnt matter if battery is empty or full or cable is connected.

I was in an Apple Store today and all of the hardware tests showed no abnormality and were fine. Battery is very fine too.

I dont have any more warranty (2 years, 2 month) and they said they can replace the Logicboard for about 500€.

15 Respuestas

It time to go to an ASP instead of the Apple Store. Apple has no incentive to tell you about this or the Genius may just not know. The ASP gets paid by Apple to do the repair so they will be interested enough to help you. Have this test run: https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro...

Are you sure? I contacted with apple support twice mentioning this exact recall program and they always told me that my *late* 2013 rMBP would not apply. Note that they only include the *early* 2013 rMBP.

The way to the Apple Store is far too long to go back and ask for a recall list. I will checkout the log files on next event. Since it crashed today after only having Firefox and Mail opened, it was working fine all day... I already checked out the console after some crashes but didnt find anything.

Just when wrote this, clicked into menu-bar of Safari and it crashes. I boot up an 30 seconds later it crashes again. Battery is 50% now. Last crash was 6 hours ago with >95% battery and after it was working like 4 hours with no crash and only battery(Usage: Safari, Mail, Skype). Boot up, 1 Minute later: Next crash while browsing Finder for log-files. Boot up, 30 Seconds later: Next crash! Fan goes on when screen is black. I was looking temperature this time which was 60° on CPU. Boot up, and 30 seconds later one more crash! MacBook unusable now. Next bootup working so far, trying 4x yes + 4k video. All temperatures going up to 90-100°C but still no crash. Fans working good.

Side Note: I've encountered three similar scenarios in the last two weeks where an OS Reinstall solved this problem. No promises, but you may want to boot off Internet Recovery and let it REinstall your OS in place of your old one. Should have minimal side-effects.

Edit: Brought my MBP to an ASP. They diagnosed this to be an issue related to WiFi. They couldn't reproduce crashes when connected over Ethernet. Even when they replaced the AirPort card with a new one, the crashes would persist, suggesting they had something to do with the logic board. So, they offered to replace the logic board for 800€, uncertain that it will even resolve the problem. Great job, guys! Now I have to decide whether to sell it broken or repair it before selling.

Edit2: Brought it to an Apple Store for a second opinion. They found out that the crashes relate to a defective RAM module. Treatment is the same though: Replacing the whole logic board for 650€. I found some independent site which replaces RAM only for 100€, let's see how that turns out...

There aren't any specifics, these are exactly the same symptons on exactly the same model. Note that OP also has a *late* 2013 rMBP, with exactly my setup (e.g. 8 gigs of RAM, i7-4850HQ, no dedicated Graphics). Apple support told me I would not apply to https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro..., so I wonder how OP actually resolved this.

I have the same model and same problems with my late 2013 rMBP 15" - did replacing the logic board fix your problem?? Trying to decide whether its worth paying to have it replaced or just buy a whole new laptop...

I haven't yet replaced the board because I wasn't near the MBP for the past 6 weeks. I'd say that it would indeed fix the problem, but it's hard to say if it will for you. Maybe bring it into an Apple Store and let them have a look at it? They did not charge me anything for diagnosing the RAM failure and afterwards you can still decide to replace the board yourself or let the Apple Store do it.

The second independent logic board repair service I sent the MBP to was also unable to fix things, btw. Seems it's either giving it to the Apple store for a hefty fee or sell it on eBay directly.

Sold it unrepaired, so no further updates from me. The buyer will most probably scavenge the new Display and the SSD, which alone are worth at least 500€. Considering that my model sells repaired for less than 1000€ on eBay, this hardware failure is pretty much a total loss if you lack the equipment or dedication to swap the logic board yourself.

Hello, same problem, went to the genius bar, they did hardware test but found nothing. I reinstalled the os in all available options (original, latest upgrade) but nothing changed. Today I have noticed that maybe it happens only without the charger connected, but I can't figure out the connection between crashes and battery problems.

I had the same issue. I called support first. The gent had me reset the PRAM, no fix. He had me re-install High-Sierra over the top - no fix. Next I reformatted and re-installed High-Sierra. During the re-install setup steps it would crash when I would enter in my AppleID information. Coming back in to re-do the setup it started crashing when setting up the wifi connection. Next I made an appointment with the Genius Bar. They bypassed the AppleID and sped through setup and ran hardware tests. All passed.....ugh. They were suspecting it was a High-Sierra issue so they downgraded to Sierra and couldn't reproduce the issue and sent me on my way. When I got it home the crashing started again (exact same random black screen for several seconds then total power shut down on Sierra this time. I made another trip to the Genius Bar. On this second trip I left it with them to run extensive diagnostics. They reformatted the HD (which I had done already 3 times) and re-installed Sierra with a generic AppleID then ran it for 48 hours straight streaming looping videos - no crash. I took it home, plugged it in and all good........until I unplug it. I have just left it plugged in for now but that random shutdown is looming for me next time I go mobile with it.

They offered to ship it off and have all the internals replaced for $575 US which isn't bad.

I bought it refurbished so no warranty.

Hope this helps someone. I have no hair left after dealing w/this thing.

Short story: check and replace the thermal paste over the CPU and GPU.

Long story:

I had the same problem, notebook freezing and after a few seconds a black screen (most of the times a regular shutdown). Took it to the Apple Store for a diagnostic and everything seemed normal to them, although they offered a continuous test during several days, which I declined. I needed the machine and the freezes weren't that often. I installed smcFanControl and that seemed to alleviate the problem.

Things got worse and I noticed the crashes were happening when the notebook switched from the discrete to the integrated GPU (used gfxCardStatus for that). For example, if I ran an html game on Chrome (with hardware acceleration enabled) and that switched to the discrete GPU, after 5 minutes and closing the tab I would get the freeze almost every time.

Before going to the Apple Store again and be told that the logic board needed to be replaced, I removed the heatsink to see the state of the thermal paste. It was dry and cracked, so I bought some Arctic Silver MX-4, cleaned the old paste and put the new one. Fixed the issue and the notebook has been working with no problems so far.

The integrated gpu was the problem in my case. With an external display connected it never crashed. So I bought a dummy hdmi plug to fool my macbook that there's an external display connected. It never crashed again....

I had this problem with random crashes. Read through all your past posts and figured I Best Buy me a new logic board. Got the board and opened up the guide to start the tear down. I got my matchbook pro 15” 2.3 dual graphic 16 gm ram all taken apart to realize I had accidentally ordered a logic board with integrated graphics. Frustrated I put the whole computer in the closet and decided to give it a break. The more I thought about it I realized one major step in replacing the board is to remove the thermal paste clean it up real well, and apply new paste. The paste on the old board was dry and cracked. So because I needed to get back to work and was tired of ordering parts, I cleaned it up, put the paste on and installed the old board. I have never had a problem since. I believe the machine is shutting down because it is overheating, it has a built in safeguard to stop it from becoming damaged. But with dry paste the heat can’t displace properly causing it to overheat. I think that is why on a cool start it would certainly last me longer, but in the end I could tell it was overheating, but buy no means would I believe the board was bad as the computer always returned to good working condition once it cooled. Anyhow, I hope this saves someone a lot of hassle.. Good Luck.